: any of a family (Caprimulgidae) of medium-sized long-winged crepuscular or nocturnal birds (such as the whip-poor-wills and nighthawks) having a short bill, short legs, and soft mottled plumage and feeding on insects which they catch on the wing
called also goatsucker
Examples of nightjar in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In that episode in Puerto Rico, a developer had cleared scarce habitat of the endangered nightjar in 2014 before completing any environmental review.
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Peter Elkind, ProPublica, 2 May 2023
The site, as the tower company later acknowledged, destroyed some of the nesting habitat of the Puerto Rican nightjar, a tiny endangered songbird.
—Peter Elkind, ProPublica, 2 May 2023
The research group found that the cilia are notably absent from feathers of barn owls and nightjars, two species that stalk prey at night.
—Jim Daley, Scientific American, 10 Apr. 2020
On other hand, the lesser nighthawk is the most frequently seen nightjar, active at sunrise and sunset and during the night.
—Ernie Cowan, sandiegouniontribune.com, 16 June 2017
Owls, of course, commonly feed at night, but there is another class of nocturnal birds known as nightjars that include the lesser and common nighthawks and poorwill.
—Ernie Cowan, sandiegouniontribune.com, 16 June 2017
Peter Elkind, ProPublica, 2 May 2023
The site, as the tower company later acknowledged, destroyed some of the nesting habitat of the Puerto Rican nightjar, a tiny endangered songbird.
—Peter Elkind, ProPublica, 2 May 2023
The research group found that the cilia are notably absent from feathers of barn owls and nightjars, two species that stalk prey at night.
—Jim Daley, Scientific American, 10 Apr. 2020
On other hand, the lesser nighthawk is the most frequently seen nightjar, active at sunrise and sunset and during the night.
—Ernie Cowan, sandiegouniontribune.com, 16 June 2017
Owls, of course, commonly feed at night, but there is another class of nocturnal birds known as nightjars that include the lesser and common nighthawks and poorwill.
—Ernie Cowan, sandiegouniontribune.com, 16 June 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nightjar.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Nightjar.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nightjar. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.
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